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E2E Deployment and Operations Guide with Stretched Cluster: Integrated System for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI
About using this guide Introduction Solution overview Solution deployment
Solution deployment
Introduction
Install roles and features
Configuring a cluster witness
Registry settings
Deployment prerequisites for stretched clusters
Customer network team requirements
Design principles and best practices
Validated network topology
Creating a stretched cluster Virtual Machines Failure/Recovery from failure of Site/Node Appendices Day 1 operations Managing and monitoring clusters with Windows Admin Center Dell OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center Updates and maintenance References

Deployment prerequisites for stretched clusters

Home > Integrated Products > Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies > Guides 22H2 and earlier > E2E Deployment and Operations Guide with Stretched Cluster: Integrated System for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI > Deployment prerequisites for stretched clusters

Deployment prerequisites for stretched clusters

  • Dell Technologies assumes that the management services required for the operating system deployment and cluster configuration are present in the existing infrastructure. An Internet connection is required to license and register the cluster with Azure. Because the Microsoft Azure Stack HCI operating system is a Server Core operating system, you require a system that supports Desktop Experience to access Failover Cluster Manager and Windows Admin Center. For more information, see the Windows Admin Center FAQ.

    Table 2. Deployment prerequisites for stretched clusters
    Component Requirements
    Active Directory Sites and Subnets Configure two sites and their corresponding subnets in Active Directory so that the correct sites appear on Failover Cluster Manager on configuration of stretched clusters.

    Configure Fault domains for each cluster if the IP subnets are the same across both sites.

    Network
    The following requirements apply:
    • RDMA Adapters for Storage/SMB traffic.
    • RDMA is not supported for Replica traffic across WAN.
    • At least a 1 Gb network between sites for Replication and inter-site Live Migration is required.
    • The bandwidth between sites should be sufficient to meet the right I/Os on the primary site.
    • An average latency of 5 millisecond or lesser for Synchronous Replication.
    • There are no latency requirements or recommendations for Asynchronous replication.
    • There is no recommendation from Microsoft regarding the maximum distance between sites that a stretched cluster can support. Longer distances normally translate into higher network latency.
    Windows Admin Center Node Windows features required:

    RSAT-Clustering

    RSAT-Storage-Replica

    Number of nodes supported

    Minimum: 4 (two nodes per site)

    Maximum: 16 (eight nodes per site)

    Number of drives supported Minimum four drives per node. Both sites must have the same capacity and number of drives. Dell Technologies currently supports only an All-flash/All-NVMe single tier configuration for stretched clusters.
    Tuning of cluster heartbeats 
    (get-cluster).SameSubnetThreshold = 20 
    (get-cluster).CrossSubnetThreshold = 20
    (get-cluster).CrossSiteDelay = 4000
    (get-cluster).CrossSiteThreshold = 120
    (get-cluster).CrossSubnetDelay = 4000
    (get-cluster).SameSubnetDelay = 2000
    SDN/VM Network SDN on multi-site clusters is not supported.

    For the maximum supported hardware configuration, see Review maximum supported hardware specifications.